Apple's New iPod Shuffle Is Kid-Friendly at $50

Apple's New iPod Shuffle: Will Your Tot Be Uploading Tunes?

It's easy for a parent to say no to a pricey product, but what about technology that doesn't cost too much? Yesterday, GeekSugar attended Steve Jobs's unveiling of the iPod Shuffle ($50) in San Francisco and gave me the inside scoop. The tiny, attractive gadget comes in five colors and will likely be the next item on your child's wishlist. Mom may be hard-pressed to turn down her music-loving lil ones when kid-friendly MP3 players from Carry-a-Tune ($70) and Hello Kitty ($100) are on the market for quite a bit more. What's your opinion?

For an older child/preteen/teenager, sure. People seem to be all up in arms about ipods, but I had a walkman as a child, and a portable cd player as a teenager. They don't need the 400 dollar model, unless they earn the money themselves, imo, and these are around the same price I paid way back when for my cd player. Music is a good thing.

4 years

My husband and I bought our niece an iPod Touch. She's 3. :-) She was constantly trying to take our iPhones, so we decided that many of the apps were educational enough.

4 years

For a tot? No. We got one for my 10-year-old though. I'm so glad they put the buttons back on the iPod itself, the last design with all the controls on the headphones was stupid as hell. You couldn't plug it into any speaker device. I'm guessing they figured out that sales dropped with that since they immediately brought it back on the next model. We got the 10-year-old one before that stupid design was out, so it's been awhile, and he always knows exactly where it is. I'm the one who has trouble keeping track of mine, they make those damn things too small.

Jen's right - I'd share my iPod with my daughter, nieces & nephews, but few younger kids need $50 players. My brother gave his 7-year old a hand-me-down iPod and it was lost within a month, and the kid really likes music - it just got away from him.